Karen Bowling (gen X) and Aubrey Durrant (gen Z) from the Smithfield Public Library will walk you through our history of social media at the library. From our initial struggles to our current successes, showing you how we leveled up our online presence and how it’s helped our library reach out to our community and beyond. We’ll offer practical design knowledge and strategic examples that can help you build on the social media you’re already doing. And we’ll give you ways to keep it cheap or free! Part I: Humble Beginnings - Resources for Getting Started Facebook and Instagram: using these platforms for success. Meta Business Suite: a visual tour for new users to organize their content. Canva: graphic design made simple. Part II: Level Up Your Look Slideshow/Tutorial: Graphic design basics for librarians. Solidifying your brand: making your library unique, recognizable, and appealing. Part III: Build a Community Follow, like, collaborate, tag, repost, comment. Show the behind-the-scenes of YOUR work - relate with your audience. Video/content examples from libraries we love. Part IV: Social Media Safety. Creating a social media policy to protect the library. Password safety. Watching for suspicious activity. Keeping posts and interactions relevant to your goals.
